Léon & Lévy

1864 established

France

The original firm of Léon & Lévy (LL) was a French printing house and photograph publishing company located in Paris. It was founded in 1864 by Isaac Georges Lévy (also known as Georges Lévy and J. Lévy) (1833–1913) and his stepfather, Moysé Léon (b. 1812). Both had worked in the Parisian photograph studio, Ferrier, Fils et Soulier, whose photograph stock they acquired in 1864. In a 1864 catalog, this stock numbered some 7,000 photographs and included views from Egypt, Syria, and Constantinople. The firm specialized in stereoscopic glass plates and picture postcards and became one of the most important postcard publishers in France. Léon left the firm in 1872, and the firm was renamed J. Lévy & Cie. In 1895, when Lévy's two sons, Abraham Lucien Lévy and Gaspard Ernest Lévy, took over the firm, the company was renamed Lévy Fils et Cie. About 1920, the firm was acquired by the printer Émile Crété who also acquired the firm of Neurdein Frères, and the new combined company was known as Lévy et Neurdein Réunis. Throughout the various changes in the firm, the logo LL (registered as a trademark in 1901) continued to be used. In 1932, Lévy et Neurdein Réunis company was acquired by the Compagnie des Arts Photomécaniques (CAP).